Blackthorn: In the Tween

by Jamie Ott

At seven ‘o’clock, Lin took her place at the entrance. If someone appeared, and it was a student, she hexed them and sent them away.

  Lin tried to read her book but couldn’t. Her mind was obsessed with all the details of the events. Over and over, her thoughts came back to the warehouses and the girl she’d seen up there. It seemed like she wanted to help her, and if she were a fairy, then maybe not all fairies were bad. In fact, the spell they’d need to send them home would need more power than even a handful of them could produce. What if she could enlist the help of fairies? It would certainly make things easier, and they could leave quicker. These thoughts convinced her, so at midnight, after Mandel came to replace her at the door, she pretended to need a night cap; then she walked through the kitchens and stepped out of the side door, quietly.

  Lin flew through the warm night air. She forgot to consider, when she got there, that the warehouses might not be there. Disappointed, she walked around the location and looked for some clues for the whereabouts of other beings in the area. Since there were so many reports of sightings on the mountain, she figured they had to be near there. All she saw, however, was forest.

  It was nearly three ‘o’ clock when she decided to return to the castle and sleep. She was just about to lift off when she noticed a line of impression in the dirt. Lin approached the line, slamming her head into an invisible wall and falling backward onto her butt. The sound of wavering aluminum, like a gong, rang.

  She stood up. Rubbing her head, she approached the line again, and ran her fingers along the cool surface of an invisible wall. After 20 feet, her hand hit air, but she continued in the same direction and eventually, her hand hit more aluminum.

  So, she thought to herself, they made the warehouses invisible.

  Lin contemplated the large structures. One thing she noticed, on Earth, was there weren’t any doors. And though she said many different spells, no door would appear. She even tried drawing one with the rock and dirt, but that didn’t work, either.

  This time, she tried speeding molecules, the way she’d read in the Sorcerer’s Way. By speeding the molecules of an item, she could cause an explosion. Unfortunately, in the cases of the warehouses, they merely got hot.

  She focused, hard, and miming with her hand, tried to command the metal to bend. This didn’t work.

  Finally, she was tired and decided to go home. She’d done all she could think of to get inside. Dawn was breaking, and no doubt, the professors would want to meet before students arrived. Feeling disappointed, she made to fly off, but when she tried to lift off the ground, something held her down.

  She sensed someone near. Lin turned around and shrieked. There, watching was a small dark haired woman. She raised her finger to her lips and said, “Shhhh.”

  Lin didn’t know if this was the same person she’d seen before, but she looked similar in features.

  “Hello.”

  The little woman said nothing.

  Her silence frightened Lin who saw she had the strangest, most expressionless face. The girl had the same elongated, dark tilted and watery onyx eyes. Her thin lipped mouth was popsicle red against her pale, marble-like skin. Her ears poked out of her hair just slightly, and her skin was milky white and sparkled lightly under the ray of moonlight. The gown she wore was of the freshest white. Her silver sandals had little jewels sewn onto them. Although her head was a little large for her tiny body, she was beautiful all the same, just like a porcelain doll.

  The woman didn’t say anything. Lin wanted to stay but it was getting lighter out, and she needed to get back.

  “I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta go.”

  “Waaait,” the girl said in mystical whisper. “I’m tryinnng to heeelp youuu.”

  The girl spoke without moving her lips.

  She stared at something behind her. Lin turned and realized she was working magic on the warehouse. The surface, though invisible, bent and stretched in and outward as if the air, itself, was solid. She must have been powerful to do such a thing just by the will of her mind.

  Then a small crack appeared in the invisible surface of the wall. It looked like a floating black line. The woman moved over to the second warehouse, and did the same.

  Immediately, Lin applied her magic to further the crack. This time, the metal pulled back easily, now that there was a rip in the magic.

  “Waaait,” the girl whispered to her.

  “You’ve got the wall to crack open. Once you ripped the fabric, you also ripped through the magic that held it solid. Thank you.”

  Lin was about to continue ripping the metal.

  “Waaaaaaaait,” she said again.

  “Why?”

  “If you go inside, you’ll leave this world and not be able to come back.”

  “What do you mean by leave this world? It’s just a warehouse.”

  “Inside are mists that will take you back to your side of the Earth. Golshem has figured a way to trap it. You must go back and tell the others first. To open the warehouses is to risk losing your way home.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Ilda; great, great, great, great, great, grand daughter of Queen Morrigaine.”

  “Why do you not move your mouth?”

  “I can’t speak your language, but I can communicate, telepathically, with you.”

  “Who is Queen Morrigaine?”

  “She reigned, here, in Avalon for over 2,000 years. She was the last one to bless the Lady of the Lake, and to anoint the Excalibur for your King Arthur, before he betrayed us. And that’s when we left the world for good.”

  “So the legends are true?”

  She only stared.

  “How did they trap mists in these warehouses?”

  “Although fog helps the mists become visible to the human eye, acting like a window and giving particles a shining surface through which to look, the mists aren’t entirely fog. They are the shadows of dimensions passing one another. One of the oldest tricks for the playthings of children is the trapping of shadows. Golshem figured out a way to take that child’s play spell and make it capable of trapping the shadows of dimensions. However, if you open these metal boxes too soon, the shadows will escape.”

  “So the Wackens sent us all through these boxes and we didn’t know it?”

  “Have you ever heard of dancing shadows? Golshem, also, took this trick from child’s play; they covered the town in dancing shadows. He danced them like marionettes over your homes at the time of tween. That is how you came, and that is how you will return, but you must not waste the shadows. In this world, the mists rarely allow opportunity for entry into the Earthly dimension, for that reason you must save what is inside the warehouses. We cannot predict when the mists will show themselves again; it could be weeks, months or years.”

  “I think I know why that is: In this world, the sun rises in the East. We are polar opposites, so when the shadows appear, it’s likely due to other orbital anomalies. Thank you, Ilda. I must return and tell the professors.”

  “You must hurry.”

  “I agree.”

  “Wait. I have another message for you.”

  “Yes.”

  “The Queen Morgana, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandniece of Morrigaine, sends a message: ‘You have two days to return your people to Earth, or we’ll expel you.’”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means our people will not tolerate humans in this realm. There will be war, and this time, your side will lose. As history shows, intermingling with humans has always ended in disaster. Avalonians do not like humans and do not wish to share territory. You don’t remember this, but your people chased us into this world, and we will not allow you to chase us from this one as well. ”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Why do witches and wizards fear the sorcerers? Why do you keep your secret? Why would they feel differently about Fairy folk?”

  “I don’t mean that humans are incapable of what you suggest
ed. I only thought Avalon receded because of religion.”

  Ilda must have tired of their conversation, because she disappeared without answering.